What is marketing?

Marketing is the process of studying wants and needs and satisfying them by exchanging goods and services; this results in satisfied buyers and creates profits for sellers.

Nowadays, general marketing strategy includes such essential elements as planning, market research, new product development, sale and the so-called communications mix which comprises advertising, public relations, direct mail and special events such as product shows, conferences and exhibitions.

An essential part of marketing is marketing research. The object of it is to find out what consumers want and advise producers the standard of quality, style of packaging, choice of brand name and general design of the products. Many businesses have created a position called marketing manager who plans and executes the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services that satisfy individual and organizational goals. Implementation of marketing concept begins and ends with marketing information about customers — first to determine what customers need, and later to evaluate how well the firm is meeting those needs.

When developing programs to satisfy markets wants and needs marketing managers work with several variables known as the marketing mix. A marketing mix is the strategic combination of product decisions on packaging, pricing, distribution, credit, branding, service, and other marketing activities.

Traditionally the important elements of the marketing mix are defined as the four P’s:

Product (quality, product range, and packaging);

Place (where product is available and how it is distributed)

Promotion (how the potential consumers should be reached and how the company should push its products);

Price (the cost to the buyer of goods and services; credit, retail margins).

Product development is a key activity in any modern business. From a marketing viewpoint a product is not just the physical good or service, e.g. a washing machine, car, or bottle of beer. The product consists of: price, package, store surroundings, image created by advertising, guarantee, reputation of the producer, brand name, service, buyers’ past experience. When people buy a product, they evaluate all these things and compare products in all these dimensions.

Exercise 2 Answer the following questions.

1. What is marketing? 2. What does marketing strategy involve? 3. What are the functions of a marketing manager? 4. What is a marketing mix? 5. How are the important elements of the marketing mix defined? 6. Tell about the four Ps. 7. What does product mean for marketing? 8. What activity is essential in any modern business? 9. What does a product include?

Exercise 3 a) Read a part of Professor Rasby’s lecture at London University about successful marketing.

Well, the key to successful marketing involves many different things. Most people would say successful marketing is just a good creative campaign. Some people would go further than that and say it involves many good marketing communications: reaching the right people, clear marketing messages and working well with sales teams to get the right sales channels.

But the most common definition of marketing is just two words: customer orientation. What does that actually mean though? It really means four things: producing what customers want, when they want it, at the right price and in a way that’s profitable for the company, and I believe in that definition very strongly.

b) Complete the following sentences using the information obtained:

1. Successful marketing includes good creative …, good marketing communications and customer … 2. Good marketing communications include reaching the right …, clear marketing … and working well with … to get the right sales channels. 3. Customer orientation really means four things: producing what customers …, … they want it, at the right … and in a way that’s ….

Exercise 4 Martin is the marketing manager of a telecommunications company. He is telling his colleagues about the marketing mix for a new product. Read and take notes on the four Ps.

The key factors of our cable package are that you get everything you need to connect to the Internet, and that your connection is faster than anything you can get anywhere else. You can email videos in just seconds, instead of minutes or hours. Customers also get free webspace and can use our webpage design program. And finally, our software automatically scans all incoming emails for viruses.

We will be reaching customers through ads on websites and in magazines starting in September. Our product will then be immediately available to customers in major metropolitan areas across Europe. We will guarantee that customers will have all hardware and be able to use our modems within 48 hours of placing an order.

We haven’t fixed a price yet, but this will be decided in the next week or two. Because our product is in the introduction phase, our pricing model should win us as many customers as possible, as quickly as possible.

Product have everything you need to connect to the Internet, …

Price _____________________________________

Placement _________________________________

Promotion _________________________________

Exercise 5 a) Read the interviews of four consumers talking about different products. Decide which of the four Ps each speaker is discussing: product, price, promotion or place.

A I really wanted it. But when I tried to buy it, I just couldn’t get it anywhere. My friend heard that it was in one shop and he queued up for ages, but they’d run out by lunch time.

B The company held a party on a river boat to launch their new campaign. It was absolutely fantastic. We also got a free gift at the end.

C The shoes were really expensive but definitely worth it. I think the fact that they are so expensive really distinguishes them from the competition.

D I’ve had this briefcase for 20 years and it still looks good. The material is high quality and long-lasting.

b) Think of some products you have bought recently. Why did you buy them? Which of the four Ps influenced your decision to buy?

Exercise 6 Read and translate the text about branding. Before reading discuss the following questions:

1. Who in your group is wearing clothes of well-known brands?

2. Why are these brands so popular?

Branding

Branding, like marketing, is as old as the concepts of ownership and selling. In former times, people branded an item simply to show who the owner was. Nowadays brands are powerful instruments of strategic marketing and long-term profitability.

Вrand is defined as ‘a name, sign, symbol or design intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers, and to differentiate them from those of a competitor’. A brand name is that part of a brand that can be spoken, including letters, words and numbers, like BMW, Danone or Citibank. A brand mark is the element of a brand that cannot be spoken, often a symbol, design or specific packaging, like the Mercedes logo or the Absolut Vodka bottle. A trademark is the legal designation indicating that the owner has exclusive use of the brand.

Brand names, as well as other brand elements such as logos, symbols, characters, spokespeople, packages should be memorable, meaningful, likable and protectable. A good brand name is easy for customers to say, spell and recall. Excellent examples are Dell, Nokia and Ford. Besides being memorable, it is an advantage that brand elements are meaningful: for example, Mr Clean (cleaning product), Vanish (stain remover), Head & Shoulders (shampoo) and Newsweek (magazine).

To build a successful global brand, the brand name should be easy to pronounce in different languages. Global brand names also have to be culture- or language-neutral in the sense that they do not evoke strange or undesirable connotations in foreign languages. Kodak, Mars and IBM are good examples of this linguistic neutrality.

Three categories of brands can be distinguished:

Manufacturer brands are developed by producers, e.g. Levi’s, Danone and BMW. Own-label brands (also called private labels, store brands) are developed and owned by wholesalers or retailers. There is no link between the manufacturer and the brand. St Michael (Marks & Spencer) and Derby (Delhaize, Belgium) are examples of store brands. Generic brands ( видова марка товару) indicate the product category. Generics are in fact brandless products. They are usually sold at the lowest prices. Did you know that aspirin and linoleum were once brand names? So were nylon, escalator, kerosene and zipper. All of those names became so popular, so identified with the product, that they lost their brand status and became generic (the name of the product class). The producers then had to come up with new names. The original Aspirin, for example, became Bayer aspirin. Some companies are working hard to protect their brand names today, e.g. Xerox (don’t say ‘Xerox it’, say ‘Copy it’).

Exercise 7 Answer the following questions:

1. Why did people brand an item in former times? 2. What do brands signal in the 21^st century? 3. How is brand defined? 4. Give the definitions of a brand name, a brand mark and a trademark.5. What brand elements do you know? 6. What is the difference between a logo, a brand, and a trademark? Think of examples of each. 7. What are the main characteristics of successful brand names? 8. Name and characterize brand categories.

Exercise 8 How many expressions with brand do you know? Match the terms in the box with their definitions.

1. What a brand is called. 2. How much people are aware of a brand. 3. What a company wants people to think about a brand. 4. What people actually think about a brand 5. When a product doesn’t fit the company’s brand. 6. When people like a brand and buy it again and again. 7. When an existing brand is used to support a new range of products. 8. When a component of a product becomes a brand in its own right (e.g. Intel in PCs).

Exercise 9 a) Read the text about counterfeiting and fake goods. Discuss these questions before reading.

1. How often do you see pirated imitations of well-known brands for sale in your country? 2. Have you ever bought something that you knew was an illegal copy?

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